Change Your Mind

I have a friend I do not play chess with anymore. Truth be told we only played one time, over two decades ago. That was enough for me. I thought the game was going well. I knew he was smarter than I am, but I was holding my own. Tom moved a piece and announced, "Check Mate." As I said we do not play anymore. It is not so much that I mind losing (God knows I have done enough of it to accept that it happens.), it was just crushing to think I could play with someone smarter and technically better than I was at the game and then have reality come crashing down on me.

My  mother-in-law gave me a word from the Lord around the same time I had played that game of chess. As I recall, her exact words were, "David, the devil is setting a trap for your soul." Okay, thanks Carolyn. That was about it--until the devil blind-sided me within the next month and knocked my life sideways. Bad news for him though: I'm baaaaaaack. I am not playing with him anymore either. (Starting today I hope.)

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I saw a couple friends who go back to high school days or thereabouts, visited with a more recent friend over Starbucks, and talked an online friend out of committing suicide. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. In case you're wondering, there were a couple minor setbacks, but we are not talking about them. Life happens.

Life happens whether we are paying attention or not. Life happens while we are doing the things we think we have to do, the things we want to do, and the things we do when we are not even thinking. The friends I met with yesterday were all between 55 and 60 years of age. Where did those years go? My children are mostly over 30 now. My babies are having babies. When did that happen?

In my personal opinion, at this point in my life, the most difficult thing the Lord ever asks anyone to do is "Take no thought for tomorrow."(Matthew 6:34) Some of you are ahead of me in this so please be patient. This is one area in which I have not gained the rest of God. (Hebrews 4)

There is a video of a sermon streaming into my ear-buds as this is being written. It is a fairly long sermon. The point is that when we carry our own cares we have made ourselves the source of our supply. The speaker claims that is the essence of pride. I donno, it sounds pretty American, self-sufficient to me.

I got my first job when I was sixteen because there was not enough money in the household to stretch as far as it needed to. Well, not as far as I wanted it to anyway. One of the things I did with my first paycheck was to go have my hair cut by a professional. Mom really tried, but she never did get very good at it. I think the artistic bent in the family, such as it is, comes from the other side.

I paid my way through college. The Lord had to make me quit two jobs while I was there. (You all know I am a slow learner.) Then He gave me the perfect job--at exactly the right time--so I did not run out of money before I ran out of school bills.

I used to be a world-class worrier; not so much anymore. Now I only worry when an occasion arises and only on days that end in "y." One last thought. I am going to claim this one is from the Holy Spirit. It came so naturally to my mind it almost seemed like I might have made it up. Here it is. It is ridiculous to believe God will suddenly stop providing for all our needs.

Apparently the point here is to get us thinking about these things because this is the end. God bless!